Music Theory Live Class #I

Brian @brianlarsen
I presume you say the key of Bm as often the first chord gives a big hint to the key.
Michael

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Sometimes. I prefer the idea of what it feels like it wants to resolve to, or ā€˜homeā€™.
(They are the same group of chords though, @Silvia80, so I wouldnā€™t worry about it :wink:)

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Heā€™s saying Bm because itā€™s the relative minor to D and is screwing with Silvia.
You are correct that the first chord is often the Key of the song but not always.

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@brianlarsen @stitch @MAT1953 Iā€™m pretty sure itā€™s Dā€¦ look, I did my homework :nerd_face::smile:


Butā€¦wait a minuteā€¦does a CHORDminor key actually exists? :thinking: ā€¦probablyā€¦and thereā€™s something Iā€™m missing :laughing:

This is something I didnā€™t know.

To be honest I tried to put the chord that gives the name of the Key on the chorus to see/hear what would happenā€¦IMHO it lifts up the song, gives it more emphasis, which is the same function a chorus has so I thought it would work wellā€¦:ear::ear:

Iā€™ve just ended my practice for todayā€¦I looked for a chord the song would resolve with, but I didnā€™t find it: both D and Bm donā€™t fitā€¦I opted
for a final arpegiated F#m which remains kind of ā€œopenā€ to tell the truth, but I like the effectā€¦

With out hearing how youā€™re playing it it would be hard for us to find home (the key of the song)
You can do this if you have a looper or by recording a drone note or chord and playing you chord progression over it.

Loop or record a D note or chord at the same tempo as you chord progression for about a minute and play your progression over it. Does the whole thing sound like it belongs together or does it feel like you need to resolve some where else?
Do the some with the Bm chord. Which one feel more musical? that your tonal center, Key of the song.

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Hey Rick, I know you are light years ahead of me in theory and playing terms, and Iā€™m well aware of my limited knowledge, but I am definitely not ā€˜screwing with Silviaā€™. I wouldnā€™t do that (unless I felt it was kind of obvious).
Iā€™m presuming Justin isnā€™t going to have the time to go through all the chord progression homework and itā€™s mainly up to ourselves to figure it out. I was trying to be helpful.
I thought part of the description of a key included major or minor and that the numbering of the chords changed depending on which one it was.
I played a simple version of 4 strums per bar of Sylviaā€™s progression and thought it sounded more like B minor than D major. The question mark after my comment was genuine :grinning:

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I could very well be in Bm if you feel it is pulling youā€™re ear that way. Iā€™m at work so donā€™t have a guitar handy. The funny thing with the key of a song is it has a lot to do with how it played.

Sorry for assuming your intentions where anything but sincere but in my defense you have been known to play the class clown.

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Who me? :clown_face:
All good :wink:

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I watched the lesson yesterday.
I hadnā€™t planned to and in my head had already categorised it as a way of demonstrating ā€˜connectednessā€™ to the Community. I was a bit stumped as to what questions could be asked that werenā€™t already comprehensively covered in the course :thinking:
I was pleasantly surprised and quite drawn in. I had a good grasp of the basics he was talking about but there were many areas he touched on that I had consciously neglected (esp. with all the chord extensions add/susā€¦)

I cheated on my homework and resurrected the chord progression of a bridge I wrote for one of my early songs about being being a bell-ringer in hell-

   d 		     G 				        C 			     F
As we set sail across the Styx, wearing hobnail boots to kick the pricks,  
d 		           G 			           C 			     F
Eternity wouldnā€™t seem so long, if we can ring our bell and sing our song 
F 			            f  	  C    e   a    e
Donā€™t pay the ferrymanā€¦ 

The song is in C major and I was surprised to find I had unknowingly used the Beatleā€™s (and evidently also Oasisā€™) trick he explained of following the fourth major with the fourth minor ( C, F, f) towards the end :grinning:

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Hi guys couldnā€™t get in on the first live session. However Iā€™ve just watched the recording, all good stuff and very informative. Just wondering how to get in on the next session, second Tuesday in November I think ?

Here are my chord progressions:
Verse; C F C F C F C G
Chorus: B on 7th fret without the barre, A on 5th fret without the barre, E open position, F#m, A 5th fret without the barre, E open
this is all from a song I wrote some time ago.

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@stitch @brianlarsen apparently in the Bm key there are the same very chords that are in the key of D :exploding_head::open_mouth: itā€™s a bit confusing! I recorded a few bars in D and some in Bm as Rick suggested, thanks for that, what my ear says is that the verse is clearly in the key of Bm and the chorus seems to sound better in the key of D. Great discoveries! I wanted to keep things simple and stay in just one key, but it ended up otherwise :laughing: Thanks to both of you Brian and Rickā€¦and thanks to Justin and Team for this live lessons, for the homework and for the chance to build our knowledge together along the way :star_struck:

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My chord progressions are;
Verse Em, G, Am, Em
Chorus Am C D Am
Fairly sure that either one could be used as verse or chorus.
In the Key of C I think, although I could be wrong.

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Are we supposed to write our progressions out or record them? Iā€™m not skilled enough at writing them to give the rhythm or even how long on each chord. But here goes anyway!

Verse: G Bm Am G
Chorus: Em Bm Em Bm Em Bm Am G then back into the verse.
I can post a recording if someone tells me how!

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This is the home work for the chord progressions that I have put together.
However I am not sure what some of the chords are called.
the first bit is A/Amaj7/A7D/Dsus4/D
Then we go to Cadd9 but only play the finger position 1 and 2 for the first strum then hammer on fingers 3 and 4. then to G and repeat 3 times
E and then slide the e shape up 1 fret then back down.

Or am I making this way too complicated for myself?

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Just watched the recording - very good, kept my interest for an hour so thatā€™s good! Will try and be there live for the next one :slight_smile:

Very well said and I totally agree.

OK finally got through about 90% of this thread. As the other 10% was above my current levelā€¦ Very informative and welcoming.

I usually never record myself but will try as I have actually wrote my first song :joy: Iā€™m sure itā€™s very basic compared to some of you. However, by the end of the Live/Online classes I hope to have bridged my really bad rhythm playing with my OK lead playingā€¦ok so I fake it well at times but shhhhhh none guitarist think Iā€™m good.

All in good fun everyone. I look forward to our next class together. Never been one much for Forums BUT this one I will try my best to stay on top of the thread.

Rest assured Iā€™ll be there for our next class. By the way, is there a set number of classes?

I will try to upload my song in a few days :grimacing: :poop: and be thankful Iā€™m not ever going to sing

Cheers Everyone

BTW my name is Don. Quadzilla has to do with my show truckā€¦my mother didnā€™t hate me that much lol

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My two chord progressions are:

Key of Bb

Verse: Dm Bb

Chorus: Gm Dm Eb F

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Hi Gagan
My understanding is there is no key A# :thinking:
The enharmonic equivalent would be Bb.
It might also be more helpful in a learning exercise to name the chords instead of using the numbers. That way everyone knows weā€™re talking about the same thing and reinforces the learning.
So 3, 1 in the key of Bb would be D minor, Bb.
If thatā€™s only one bar of each itā€™s quite a short verse. Have you thought about maybe doing repetitions of 3, 1 before launching into the chorus? :grinning: